Chapter 68: Crusade
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The next day, Shiro and Kuroneko arrived at a cliff in the 50th floor. This seemingly inconspicuous rock formation housed the biggest PK Guild as well as the villain's gathering spot.

'This shouldn't be a troublesome one.'

Looking at his character panel that is the result of an entire year of work, Shiro felt confident that this raid wouldn't pose much of a threat, as compared to them fighting against a special boss with a 20-level gap.

[Template: Shiro - Aincrad]

Name: Shiro

Level: 80

STR: 63 (+80)

AGI: 70 (+90)

WIS: 180

Skills: <<One-Handed Sword (899/1000)>>, <<Sword Dance (730/1000)>>, <<Martial Arts (870/1000)>>, <<Extended Weight Limit (790/1000)>>, <<Lifesteal (850/1000)>>, <<Battle Healing (693/1000)>>, <<Stealth (832/1000)>>, <<Cooking (900/1000)>>, <<Fighting Spirit (648/1000)>>, <<Acrobatics (780/1000)>>, <<Intimidation (500/1000)>>

Items (Equipped): ??? (One-Handed Sword - Right Hand), Archangel's Halo (Accessory - Head), Concealment Mask (Accessory - Face), ??? (Light Armor - Body), Divine Strength (Accessory - Right Arm), Shadow Walker (Accessory - Left Arm), ??? (Light Armor - Legs), ??? (Light Armor - Feet)

Thanks to his lucky streaks, not only did he manage to stay on the 1st place when it comes to levels, he also managed to level the [Archangel's Halo] to level 12. In this state, it gave bonus 48 points on STR and AGI alone.

Since it ate a huge amount of EXP per level, its growth is slow. Although, it's mostly due to Aincrad having much lower threshold when it comes to power. When he checked it, 3 stat points here equates to a single stat point in his system.

Still, the power that it gave is good enough, considering that its main attraction are the skills that they'll be able to keep in real life. It worked by PERCENTAGE, not fixed stat points.

Moreover, they can be used without any cost, except for their cooldown time.

Just this alone is enough to give them an edge against even-leveled opponents. When they ran out of mana/aura, they can just use their skills to finish them off!

As for his unique skill, it didn't turn out to be like <<Dual Blades>> but something much stronger. Just the prerequisites of it alone needs one to level up <<One-Handed Sword>> as well as <<Meditation>> and <<Martial Arts>> to 500., as opposed to only <<Meditation>> to level 500 and fastest reflexes for <<Dual Blades>>.

The player also needed to have a true sword and martial arts expertise in real life. Naturally, Cardinal gathers the data about each potential holder of this <<Unique Skill>> before comparing it to its database, confirming that he or she is a genuine swordsman and martial artist.

"When will those heroes arrive?"

"Heroes? Right, they should be coming soon."

Just as he'd said that, they saw a group of nearly 200 players marching to this direction. Slight confusion can still be seen on their faces, which made it evident that their guild masters had only explained their intention right before they were about to leave.

Caught off-guard by the thought of fighting against other players, hesitation can be seen amongst them.

"This might be the reason why they suffered so much casualties."

"In the anime?" Kuroneko recalled the anime that she briefly watched and the light novel that she'd read. Realizing what Shiro is pointing out to, she replied, "They're not ready to kill other players."

"Mn. While hiding this info until the last day is smart, they have to pay for some things."

"They have no choice. This guild infiltrated deep enough to be uprooted."

In the Girl's Ops spin-off manga series, more things about Laughing Coffin was revealed, such as them having green players as spies, so that they can enter the town and buy supplies. Since that guild had done this, it doesn't take a genius to realize that they might have informants working to gather information about their rival guilds.

Though, only when their party clashed against them did they realize just how ridiculous their counts are. From the remaining 8,000 players alone, more than 1/4 of them are spies belonging to that guild.

It cemented the fact that Sword Art Online housed more psychos once the death game is cleared. Even if they're not one, players has the potential to turn into one after being in this game for extended periods of time.

'Hm... I see, they're all here.'

Shiro recognized some more familiar faces in the anime, such as the guy who got murdered by Kuradeel (Godfreed), members of the DDA guild who tried to steal Nicholas the Renegade's drops from Kirito, and another player whom is another student of his.

Of course, Kirito and Asuna are present too, mainly because of Asuna's responsibilities as the leader of Team 2 of KoB.

Since both Shiro and Kuroneko has the <<Stealth>> skill, they weren't noticed by them as they pushed a rock on the wall, causing a hidden entrance to appear.

There's one exception, however.

"Kirito-kun?"

"Ah, it's nothing." He stared at the "empty" space not far away from him. 'Did I sensed it wrong?'

Kirito didn't take much time before following the rest to the hideout.

"As expected of a protagonist. He can even feel gazes without any prior training."

"His senses are that sharp?" Kuroneko asked with a slight surprise in her voice. Even she has to train intensively under Shiro for a few days before 'feeling' gazes in her surroundings.

As for her ability to detect bloodlust and killing intent, it's something that she already have when she acquired that system of hers.

"That's right. He has the highest reaction time, after all. Give him a lightsaber and he'll surely cut through bullets."

"I recall him doing that. Talents, huh."

Before, this might've discouraged her for a bit due to her talents being in the non-combat oriented side, but not now. At least, she realized that she has talent regarding fighting thanks to her UR reward, [Ashborn's Inheritance].

"Let's go follow them soon, the entrance might close automatically just like the usual cliche."

"Alright."

*****

Inside this huge place where black pillars supported the ceiling on the side and floor made out of quartz, a chaotic battle is happening.

Clang-! Clang-!

Bam-! Bam-!

"Fuck! How did they find us?!"

"What are the informants doing?! They should've noticed a raid team this big!"

The members of the laughing coffin, who is just chilling, was surprised when their base suddenly got raided by their enemies. Ever since they transferred here, a structure that used to be a dungeon, everyone else are confident enough to stay hidden under the radar of those guilds.

If their leader didn't rat them out, that is.

"Heh. I knew this would happen if you trust that bastard." Morte, a Laughing Coffin executive who's also known as PoH's right-hand man, snorted at the sight of his 'comrades' in despair.

He wore a full set of chainmail armor. With his hood on, one couldn't see much of his face, but they could definitely tell that he's smiling - enjoying this event.

Even though there's no casualties for now, he knew that it wouldn't take long before it starts happening.

Morte started running away from this place. Thanks to him knowing yet another pathway outside of this hideout, he can confidently escape this place.

"They've hidden this well, alright. Without their resolve, they'll remain as-"

Psssh-!

"Stop right there."

A player with a boyish face, which hinted his childishness, appeared to intercept him. He pointed his sword right at his throat when he'd arrived. His light-brown eyes watched every move of Morte, so as to prevent him from doing something.

"Whoa." Morte put both of his hands up as a sign of surrender. "Saw you standing still earlier. You stayed behind and looked for escapees, right?"

"..."

The player didn't say anything and gestured him to place both of his hands in front before taking out a pair of metallic shackles similar to handcuffs.

At this moment, part of his attention is directed to a player humming a song of sorts. Surprisingly, it continuously provided a set of buffs due to her <<Chant>> skill.

(Sword Art Online OST - Swordland)

As long as she continued singing the songs recorded in her skill, it'll provide buffs to everyone within her range. 

"Your friend? She must be that good singer. Quite the cheerful one, too."

The player didn't respond and was about to cuff Morte when one of the players responsible for defending that support player got paralyzed. At the same time, a few members of the Laughing Coffin headed to finish her off.

Clearly, they knew that she provided a huge buff for the crusaders and wanted to eliminate her.

"Yuna!"

"Tsk. If I got the chance, I would've loved to kill her..."

"You-"

Clang-!

The player barely blocked the one-handed axe that instantly appeared in Morte's right hand thanks to the latter's <<Quick Change>> mod. It allowed him to equip weapons that he previously selected, removing the need for opening his Main Menu just to equip a newer weapon.

Opening it took a couple of seconds, and it meant a lot in the battlefield.

Just as the player is about to throw a couple of daggers at her direction, he saw someone intercept those attackers in one go. That player wore a plain white mask, but he immediately recognized that someone.

"Sensei..!"

The player, Nautilus, saw him look at his direction for a brief moment before focusing back to that fight. Seeing this, Nautilus regained his complete calmness as he faced off against the well-known player killer that almost got Kirito a few times.

*****

Fact #26: In Sword Art Online, everything from the movies are actually not included in the light novel canon. Ordinal Scale simply didn't happen in it while there's an extra character that's been added on the Progressive movie. That's also the reason why you wouldn't see Eiji and YUNA in the underworld battle in the light novel. There's also no Tozawa Mizumu (Asuna's friend irl) in Progressive light novel.

PS: You can expect their appearance here since I merged everything, from the anime and light novel to even SAO games (Philia and Strea). 

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